Aunty Bronny is in the house

This morning Bronny arrived down from Townsville. It was so nice to catch up with her and she got to spend some lovely time with Dominic during the day and then some fun time with Kenz in the afternoon / evening.

We did have a little episode where Dommy stood in dog poo and then got on the trampoline and Bronny was reliving her gymnastics / trampolining days and then realised there was dog poo on the trampoline and probably bits of it over her clothes. So at 4.50pm there was a bit of a freak out - mainly from Dom - as he had it on his shorts and legs and Bron needing to go for a shower too!

Ben was at a wedding and he had clients coming at 5pm, so I was a bit panicked that this all happened 10 minutes before they were meant to arrive!

Anyway we all managed to get things cleaned up and I cooked a roast for dinner.

We didn't have any trick or treaters this year for Halloween either.

Bron, Kenz and Dom were all in bed by 9pm and Ben got home from his wedding at 9.30pm. By the time Ben downloaded his photos, I washed his clothes for Saturday's wedding etc it was 11pm!

Can it get any busier?!!

I can't believe how fast the weeks are going lately! There just isn't enough time in the day.

I've been flat out today - dropped Kenz off, took Dommy to child care for the day (he wasn't impressed and he said it wasn't his child care day) but he was ok once he got there, went to Aldis for groceries, came home unpacked, then went to the Toy Sale in the next street - they're now opened 7 days a week (it used to be just 4 weekends in November) and they had some great stuff.

Went to Coles to get the other stuff I can't get at Aldi's, came home unpacked, made lunch for me and Ben, and then I left for the hairdressers - that was a debarcle. They wanted nearly 2 and a half hours to do my hair, and I only had 1 and a half hours before I had to pick Kenz up, so I had to tell them to forget. I was so upset, I was almost in tears! This was my only chance to get my hair cut before Rochelle's wedding and I had specifically booked Dom into care, so I really needed it done today!!

Was driving home and remembered a hairdressers on the Top of the Hill of Raymont Road, so I popped in and she was finishing off someone's hair and said she could cut mine for me (no colour / foils) but I was happy about that - and I was in and out in half an hour. I'll definitely be visiting Carmen again!

http://www.topofthehillhair.com.au/

And the good thing is, she did a good cut and all the colour (from my May colour) has come back, so it looks really good!!

Came home and the dog washer was just finishing off Oscar's hydrobath (thank god he doesn't stink any more!) and then I picked Kenz up from school and raced her off to Vision Therapy. After the half an hour session, we picked up Dommy and got home about 4.30pm. No wonder I feel exhausted!!!

Tomorrow Bronny is arriving from Townsville and staying the night.

Saturday, Ben's parents are picking up Bron to take her to the family reunion (which Ben and I can't attend) as Ben has a wedding and I have a friend's Christening at Ipswich (her twin boys) and I'm taking the photos, and then Bron will be going back up to Minden for the night before flying home on Sunday.

Sunday we don't have any plans (yet) - thank god!!!

Lisa

Mon-Wed

3 days of work
3 days of school
3 days of child care
3 days of designing albums and wedding appointments.

Just our usual Monday - Wednesday sort of week!!

Monday I was just exhausted and didn't make it to the gym.

Tuesday we had the lovely Kimberley Bowden come to our studio - Ben took her photos for her album cover and she very kindly agreed to bring her guitar and sang to all of us - Dom was fascinated and Kenz loved it because she really loves singing!!

So we had our own private "jam session" in our studio with Kim - up & coming Contemporary Country artist - watch out for her!!

Wednesday we had a new cleaner to our place as our cleaner isn't too well at the moment and needs to have an Op. (We don't have much luck with cleaners - don't know why, I leave the bl**dy house spotless before I leave it every fortnight!!)..

Sunday - a day of rest??

Well we had heaps of things we wanted to do today:-

buy some plants for the front garden
visit display homes
cut down the bamboo and take stuff to the dump
look for houses online
go to the caravan and camping show
walk Oscar and
watch Indy

What did we do?

Watched some Indy, spent hours looking at houses online, cut down the bamboo and did a dump trip and walked Oscar..

So it was a pretty lazy day!!

Busy, Busy, Day

Ben left at 7am this morning to drive down to a wedding at Coolangatta. (and it's Indy weekend too).

I decided I'd surprise the kids and take them roller skating at Albany Creek. They had no idea where we were going. Anyway it was all good (except it cost me $31 - they must have charged me an entry fee as well, even though I was told that I couldn't do the learn to skate class with them and I said I wasn't too sure how Dominic would react to that!

Anyway we got them their skates and they started off practicing on the carpet. Dom actually has pretty good balance - and I think this is about the 4th time Kenz has skated. The learners class went for an hour but Dom had had enough after 30 minutes (which was fair enough). Then they said Kenz could go up to the next level class, so that was good.

After the 1 hour class they could go for a "free" skate - or skate with the general public. Kenz only skated for about half an hour because she didn't want to skate by herself.

I think I might take them ice skating next time (well maybe just Kenz) as it's only $5 for a 30 minute class and that includes the skate hire.

Then we went to Brookside and I bought some white dressy shoes for Kenz to wear to the wedding and some pink earrings (Kate had brought over Jessica's pink flower girl dress yesterday) - so Kenz is pretty much ready, I just need to find a hairdresser down at Burleigh Heads.

We came home for a couple of hours (I was hoping they would be tired and have a rest but not these little energiser bunnies!).

Then at 5pm we went to Dominic's child care centre to his Disco (disco for the kids) and Cheese, Wine and Artwork night for the adults. there must have been about 100 people there - so I think it was a few more than what they had expected.

Dom has a great painting on canvas - the little sign said - the sky is black because it's night time and the fireworks were really noisy -they went bang!

And his panting actually looks like fireworks. I wonder if I can scan it any way???

So we can purchase his print next week for $15.

They also had a sausage sizzle for the kids and the kids had a great time running around.

We got home just after 7pm - about 5 minutes after Ben got home from his coast wedding.

Really exhausted now!!!

Ticker Tocker

Countdown to Rochelle & Andy's wedding

Friday

Really tired today after the function last night - even though it wasn't a late night, I think it was just emotionally draining.

Took Kenz to school, went to Big W and paid off some layby and grabbed some groceries. Then Kate and Abbey came over and Kate did our BAS whilst Abbey and Dom played together.

I've booked Dom into the Enoggera Swimming on Samford Road for next Thursday - except the only time I could get was 9.30am which means I can't really go to Kenzie's class to do reading with her and I miss out on my Body Pump class too - I'm going to have to see if they have an afternoon class.

Ben had a portrait photo shoot on in the afternoon and Kenz was just happy to spend the afternoon at home and chill out a bit.

Bollywood Function

Wow it's hard to believe the day is finally here!!

This morning I took Kenz to school and went to her class to do the reader books. Then Dom and I raced off to the Everton Park Hotel to meet up with Lise, Meaghan and Henry for a couple of hours, which is always fun!

Came home, had lunch and then got ready to go to work.

Ben dropped me off at the train at 2.30pm and I was at work at 3pm. Amazingly we had it all set up by 5pm when the staff started to attend the function and it turned out to be a really good night. Everything moved along pretty smoothly, there were plenty of drinks, bollywood dancing, food, henna art, more bollywood dancing (Roushini is wonderful - I have been planning this function for 6 months with her!) and plenty of prizes!!.

the function finished around 8.30pm and then I stayed behind with a few others and we finally left at 9.45pm. Glad I live close to work!!!

Three days of work

Just the usual Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at work.

Monday was Pupil free day and vacation care wasn't opened, (so I wasn't very happy about that) but in a way it was good for Kenz to get over her tonsillitus. So she stayed home with Ben (he worked downstairs and Kenz watched movies etc upstairs. Ben also had to go out and buy some computer stuff, so she went along as well. Not very exciting for Kenz but it was the best we could do.

Tuesday we had our last meeting for our Bollywood Function. We can't believe it's nearly here!

Wednesday nothing overly exciting happened. I did have Food Direct deliver my groceries as i wouldn't have time tomorrow to go grocery shopping because I'm catching up with Lise in the morning and then have to be at work at 3pm to help set up the function.

1st Birthday Party

This morning we went to a park at Jindalee for little Andy McMahon's birthday party. It was a really nice morning and we managed to catch up with quite a few friends which was great.

Then we came home for lunch and just relaxed in the afternoon and took Oscar for a walk.

A visit to the Doctors

This morning I took Kenz to the drs and he was brilliant - he weighed her (almost 20kgs), measured how tall she was (114cms) (Dom was 16kgs and 96cms I think), told me Kenz had a slight curve in her spine, took a swab of her tonsills so if the anti biotics aren't working by Monday, let him know and they'll check to see if they're the right ones and he even called her "mouse" - which suits her sizewise.

Ben had a computer guy around this morning - he was here from 9am until just after 2pm (so I haven't been able to do anything) - I was meant to go to the coast to meet my sister, show her my dress and meet the hairdresser but couldn't because Kenz was sick anyway and then he was here). Anyway he said Ben needs a new computer (his is only 2 years old and he thinks a recent storm may have damaged it!)..Ben won't be happy.

Ben's shooting a wedding today around North Lakes, Dayboro and back to North Lakes again.

Sore throat, car service, housework and photo shoot

Friday I had McKenzie home with us as she had a sore throat and her glands were up a bit. Then she started getting temperatures so I knew she had tonsilitus. She still managed to do a photo shoot with me in the afternoon though which was good.

I also took the Peugeot in for it's 2 year service (we've had it one year) and it cost us $910!!! $500 was labour, and then the general grease, oil etc and a heap of things got fixed under the warranty - like my cruise control and brake lights - which are apparently connected - so I have known for 10 months that cruise hasn't been working, but didn't know that my brakes weren't! Lucky no one ran up my backside!!! Anyway at least it is done now!! I also spent 2 hours doing the house work!!

Our 9th Wedding Anniversary

Today was our 9th wedding anniversary (and we've been together for 14 years), but I guess it was just like any other Thursday.

Ben went off to his photographers' lunch and I took Kenz to school and then went grocery shopping with Dom.

I bought Ben a Drakkar Noir (aftershave) gift pack - it's his favourite - but of course Ben didn't know I was getting it, so he didn't get me anything - slack I know. And our lovely friends Sandra and Ian made Ben a card to give to me because they knew he wouldn't have gotten one! Thanks guys..

I picked up Kenz and took her to start her Vision Therapy at the Optometrists. It was a 30 minute appointment where they showed McKenzie 3 activities, like reading a book but only reading the 1st and last word of each sentence - so this helps with tracking and keeping her eyes on where she is reading. The 2nd activity was quite tricky and the third she flew through it - she had a page of squares and circles in rows and she had a picture of a square on one hand and a circle on the other and whenever she saw a square she had to tap with the hand that had the square on it, and also say square or circle. By the end of the week she has to be doing it to the beat of the cd they gave us.

So hopefully this will all improve her reading etc...

We had some takeaway Earth and Sea pasta for dinner..

The start to another week

Well Monday through to Wednesday I started in my new workgroup. Everyone has been really nice and I was fortunate to have Mark (the partner) away so I could settle in, find out where everything was and how everything works. I think it's going to be a nice section to work in.

And just the usual school, child care etc and I actually made it to the gym for a Body Balance class which I really, really needed.

Wet Weekend

Saturday - still raining and quite cold! I think Ben was happy to have the weekend off and spend some time at home doing nothing much at all. I went to a spray tan mob and got a spray tan done - they did a pretty good job, but I think next time I'll go a shade darker.

Then we met up with Mike, Kate & the girls at The Lone Star Tavern for dinner at 5pm. They had good meals, but it wasn't cheap! We were home by 7.30pm and the kids went straight to bed. The kids have been driving us insane, they're probably bored and with the rain, doesn't help..

Sunday - Bathurst was on so Ben was happy to sit on the lounge for most of the day..I've been looking up houses to buy - we really need something bigger, with a play area for the kids (so they're not in our lounge all of the time) and a bigger block of land and somewhere separate for the studio. It's pretty hard finding something to meet our criteria - especially since we want to still stay roughly in this area....after Bathurst we took Oscar for a walk, Kenz rode her bike and Dom wanted to be piggy backed all the way - needless to say we only did the small block!!! It's also my little cousin Bree's 4th birthday and my cousin's son Dallas' 8th birthday today. And 6 years since the Bali Bombings - I remember it so well! Ben was shooting a wedding and McKenzie was only a baby..

Another week has flown by

So what's happened this week??

Monday - found out that Dominic's child care teacher was sacked - she was the best teacher they had at the child care centre, and the kids loved her - and the parents loved her - so we're really not sure what's happened there, but what can you do??

Tuesday Dominic got bitten at child care so I wasn't very happy about that! Ben and I were wondering if we should look at changing centres again - it's really hard because Dom is making little friends and they also told us that Dominic can get in 4 days next year (which is what I was hoping for so I can have a Thursday to do photoraphy). Ben went to a photographer's lunch at Trudy's place.

Wednesday it was decided that we probably wouldn't be going camping this weekend because it's meant to be wet weather - typical - the last free weekend until the end of the year and our last chance to take the camper trailer out - but it's not worth camping in the rain!

Thursday dropped Kenz off to school and Dom and I went to the gym - I haven't been for ages and just didn't feel like doing much - so I only lasted about 40 minutes. Went grocery shopping - nothing exciting..

Friday - POURING RAIN - just as well we didn't go camping, it would have been a nightmare...Matt, Michelle & Levi left for Mackay today - their big move up north.

First Aid Kit

Decided to go through our First Aid Kit that we take camping - I found this website, it has some great recommendations!!

List Of First Aid Kit Supplies

1.)A pair of latex gloves. Many diseases are transmitted by touching bodily fluids such as blood and urine.

2.)Band Aids. The most common injury you will treat are small cuts and scrapes.

3.)Four inch sterile gauze bandages for those slightly larger cuts and bloody noses.

4.)One roll of cloth adhesive tape for taping bandages, and minor splitting like broken fingers.

5.)Ipecac syrup for ingesting poisonous substances.

6.)Ammonia inhalants for fainting.

7.)Cotton roll sterile dressing for holding bandages on the bigger lacerations and abrasions and to put direct pressure on wounds to stop the bleeding.

8.)One pair of blunt scissors for cutting bandages, and removing clothing if needed.

9.)Eye wash to flush out an eye if water is not readily available.

10.)Tweezers for removing those splinters.

11.)Cold packs for bumps on the head, sprains, and heat exhaustion.

12.)One tube of antiseptic ointment to clean minor cuts.

13.)Cotton swabs to get particles out of the eye, ear and to apply ointment.

14.)Plastic Zip-Lock bags for a variety of purposes, including cleaning up hazardous material or storing cut-off fingers, etc.

15.)Disinfectant wipes to clean yourself after you’ve treated someone’s wounds.

15.)Benadryl, to help reduce swelling at any time. This can be used for bug bites and allergic reactions.

16.)Goggles to prevent fluids and other objects from getting into your eyes.

17.)Flashlight in case someone is hurt in the dark or in a power outage situation. It would be wise to check the batteries frequently in the flashlight.

18.)Rescue Blanket; the reflective kind, that can also be used for keeping someone warm, keeping them cool, or signaling aircraft or someone using binoculars trying to

find you.

19.)If you're CPR-certified, carry around a CPR face shield. This will also help to prevent you from coming in contact with the injured party's bodily fluids and will help

prevent catching disease.

20.) A lollipop to calm a child that is afraid when injured.

I've started a new BLOG for my Weddings and Portraits

I asked a photographer friend today what was her website address and she said she didn't have a website but she did have a blog and then the light bulb came on - I could do a blog for my weddings and portraits - why hadn't I thought of that before!!!!?? And especially since I probably won't have a website as I'm sort of working under Ben and his website, a blog is the next best thing!!

So that's what I have been doing for the last hour or two (thankfully the kids are keeping themselves entertained!).

So here's the link to my new blog....

http://lisaclarkstudios.blogspot.com/

All very exciting - now I just need to book in a lot of jobs! haha

Breathing Space Cafe

Well the neighbours partied until 4am so I didn't sleep very well and then the wonderful children woke us up at 5am - so needless to say I was VERY cranky about not having any sleep.

This morning we caught up with Suzanne, Rachael, Jeff, and the twins at Breathing Space, Indooroopilly. The boys are now 10 months old and growing up very quickly!!

The cafe was good for my 2 as I could pay $2 each and they could play for 2 hours. I think there were only about 3-4 kids at one time in the room - so that's a better ratio than child care!! We were there for nearly 3 hours and the kids even got their faces painted which they thought was great...

I tried to have a snooze in the afternoon when Dom was, but rotten McKenzie kept waking me up every 5 minutes wanting more food to eat! Gggrrrr......

Ben had another wedding, which went a lot better than Fridays wedding (thank goodness!)

I'm 2nd shooter for a wedding today!!

Today I helped our friend Trudy from Studio Con Brio with a wedding.

We had an early start - she picked me up at 7am and we met the bride at 8am. (Ben took the kids over to Craig and Liz's place for the day as he had a wedding on also).

The Bride, Jessica was gorgeous - just a stunning and lovely person. Michael the groom was lovely too - they were so suited to each other. The Bridal party were a great bunch too.

They had their ceremony at Hillstone (St Lucia Golf Course) which is lovely and then they had a lunch reception, so Trudy and I went for lunch and then met them again for the cake cutting and the bridal waltz.Then we went to the City Botanical Gardens for some location shots around 4pm.


I got home at 5.30pm and I was so tired, but had to go pick up the kids and we got home around 6.30pm, so then it was dinner, baths etc....

Ben got home about 7.15pm, he had a very interesting wedding - lets just say everything went wrong, and their car even broke down on Hale Street in peak hour traffic!! Oh dear!

Thursday

Well we didn't really have any plans today - so I just took the kids grocery shopping and we just hung out at home.

In the afternoon I met with Dominic's child care teacher for his parent/teacher interview and he's doing really well. Taryn said he had a great personality, knows his colours, numbers and shapes and gets along well with the kids and the other carers etc - so that is great to know!

I still haven't made it to the gym for ages - I don't think I'll bother joining up again next March!!!

October already - not happy Jan (about work)!

Wow where has the year gone!????

I got called into a meeting with my boss and the HR Manager today - knew it couldn't be good news!

Anyway to cut a long story short - apparently Special Counsel (I sit outside of his office) has been cracking about not having a secretary as his is still on level 20 (so Jenny and myself help him out when we can), his secretary (on 20) has been cracking about doing his work on 2 floors, and apparently one or both of them are about to blow - so to keep THEM happy, they've decided that she will work on level 13 and Myself and Angela are now moving up to her group!! There was no choice - their minds had been made up..

I have mixed emotions about it - I sort of feel like they're pushing me out, and since most of our group doesn't want her down on 13 anyway, why should they keep her happy and upset about 8 of us!!

But then again I will be working for a partner, a senior associate (who I don't really care for as she's a nasty peice of work) and a solicitor. Plus I will be working with Stella which is great.

I just don't know....will have to see how it goes Monday week.

Anyway Ben had a better day - he went down to Ormeau with a bunch of photographers for Ian's 40th birthday, and they did the WRX Rally drive experience. Ben said it was excellent!